Singapore is quietly building one of Asia’s most complete capital stacks. But founders and investors are being reminded that discipline, not hype, will determine who makes it from pre‑seed to exit. That was the core message from a Craft Stage panel at the FM Singapore Summit 2026, where venture capital, public markets and secondary‑liquidity specialists mapped out how the city‑state competes with London, New York and San Francisco across the full lifecycle of funding.Singapore’s Appeal, and Its LimitsModerator Vidushan Premathiratne, founder of 8 Circle and Techt Labs, set the tone by contrasting Singapore’s reputation as a safe hub with the “sophisticated ecosystem” behind it, spanning sovereign capital from Temasek and GIC, a growing family office base, specialist VC funds and the Singapore Exchange.Yet the panel was clear that the market’s depth must be seen in context: “If you look at venture dollars raised in Q1 this year in SF, you’re talking about $170 to $180 billion; here in Singapore, two to three billion,” said Luca Zorzino, General Partner and Head of Singapore at Illuminate Financial.For Zorzino, Singapore works best when founders use its advantages – regulatory clarity, specialist talent and early‑stage capital, while accepting a different risk‑capital flavor than Silicon Valley.More from the event: “When AI Is a Black Box, Traders Either Distrust It Completely or Trust It Far Too Much”: Insights from FM Singapore Summit 2026That means building leaner, more capital‑efficient companies, getting to profitability sooner and treating Singapore as a Southeast Asia gateway or a regulatory beachhead for global fintech, rather than a copy‑paste of a US model.Building Exit-Ready Companies from Day OnePre‑seed investor Zongxi Sia, Partner at Cocoon Capital, focused on how governance and structure can de‑risk failure for LPs and future investors. Cocoon insists that IP, founder employment and corporate value be housed in a Singapore entity: “There has to be as much value as possible housed in a safer region or more predictable region,” he said, arguing that this makes later US or European investors more comfortable with due diligence and corporate governance standards.Sia noted that most founders he backs are first‑timers, often “techies” who are strong on product and sales but “have no idea what a balance sheet is.” He described venture funding as a “double‑edged sword”. “I give you money, but you have to give me an exit as well”, and stressed the need to professionalize management over time, sometimes bringing in a CEO or CFO to handle conversations with Series A, pre‑IPO and eventual exit counterparties.London’s Bid to Plug the Funding ContinuumOn exits, Thom Abbott, Head of Southeast Asia, Primary Markets at the London Stock Exchange, argued that London can offer Singapore‑grown companies both public and private pathways to deeper pools of capital. He emphasized that his role is not to “drag companies kicking and screaming over to London” but to help when there is a strategic rationale, such as sector expertise, acquisition plans or access to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.Abbott highlighted LSEG’s new private secondaries platform, designed for companies that are staying private longer but need to meet institutional investors or offer liquidity to early staff and backers. “We are trying to be… agnostic as to whether a company is public or private,” he said, positioning the platform as a way to extend the funding continuum between early rounds, secondary sales and a possible IPO. On dual listings, he warned that they only work when there is a clear strategic rationale and a willingness to absorb the additional costs, rather than as a flagging we’re there branding exercise.Investment ‘Winter’ and the AI Arms RaceThe panel pushed back on headlines about a prolonged investment winter in Asia, while acknowledging a stark K‑shaped recovery in global venture markets. Zorzino said that while San Francisco’s downturn “has been very much over for a while now” and capital is “essentially unlimited” for firms such as Anthropic and OpenAI, smaller players in Singapore still face a tougher fundraising environment and widening disparity between “the haves and the have‑nots.”On AI, both investors agreed the wave is not about to end, but will evolve. Zorzino predicted more scrutiny of unit economics as model providers shift from “all‑you‑can‑eat” to usage‑based pricing: “People are going to start recognizing that actually this workflow… automated with Claude… actually cost me $4,500 just for this specific workflow,” he said, arguing that some tasks may be cheaper in low‑cost human locations than through an LLM.Keep reading: “Singapore Banks Remain Cautious and Selective”: Web3 Firms Face Higher Compliance DemandsSia added that Cocoon saw roughly 2,100 deals last year and “about every quarter was about 300 or so AI companies,” rising to roughly 450 AI decks in the first quarter alone, evidence, he said, of a bubble that “is just going to keep being around,” even as investors shift their focus from wrappers and app layers to more defensible innovation and data‑level moats.Geopolitics, safety and the case for disciplineGeopolitical risk surfaced mostly as a constraint on deep‑tech and cross‑border exits rather than a brake on early‑stage enterprise software. Sia said early enterprise tech companies in Southeast Asia are still largely insulated as they chase regional product‑market fit, while deep‑tech founders must now confront whether they can serve both US and China or must pick a side. Zorzino pointed to banks’ desire to host open‑source models in‑house, many originating from Chinese research labs, while weighing security and capital‑controls risks, especially after enforcement actions like the crackdown on Manis.Abbott argued that IPOs still rely on “a bit of stability and less volatility” and cited a delayed flotation by Love Holidays, which had heavy exposure to Dubai, as an example of how specific geopolitical flashpoints can upset listing timetables. But he said secondary‑market activity remains robust and that both London and Singapore can benefit from being seen as relatively neutral venues that investors use to express their own geopolitical preferences in sectors such as resources and AI‑critical supply chains. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

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